Voting for the biennial elections to 11 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council began at the Vidhan Bhavan Complex here on Friday morning.

Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Gaikwad was the first to cast his vote through the secret ballot system.

There are 12 candidates in the fray for 11 seats. Voting is scheduled to be held from 9 am to 4 pm, though Shiv Sena (UBT) has demanded that it be extended by an hour due to heavy rains in Mumbai.

The 288-member legislative assembly is the electoral college for the polls and its current strength is 274.

Each winning candidate would need a quota of 23 first-preference votes.

Eleven members of the upper house of the state legislature are retiring on July 27 and these high-stakes polls are being held to fill the vacancies.

The BJP has fielded five candidates, while its Mahayuti allies Shiv Sena and NCP have nominated two each.

The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have fielded one candidate each, while their Maha Vikas Aghadi partner NCP (SP) is backing the nominee of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP).

The MVA does not have numbers on its side to get the third candidate elected, but it is banking on some MLAs of the NCP and the Shiv Sena, both constituents of Mahayuti, to cross-vote in their favour.

Over the last few days, the NCP (SP) has claimed that some MLAs of the rival camp led by Ajit Pawar are in touch with the opposition party for a possible return after MVA's impressive show in the Lok Sabha polls.

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